9th October, 2012
Some Bakassi people have declared that they have accepted their fate following the International Court of Justice ruling of 10 October, 2002 which ceded their area to Cameron and should therefore be resettled in their chosen place, Dayspring 1, 2 and 3 rather than seek for a review of the judgment.
Senator Florence Ita-Giwa who spoke on behalf of the people, said in Calabar, the Cross River state capital, southsouth Nigeria, on Monday that though the Bakassi people “appreciate the sudden concern of the Federal Government and some well meaning Nigerians to seek a review of the I C J ruling, such was coming at a belated time and therefore should be allowed to remain.
“All these politicians who are today asking for a review of the judgment have never been to Bakassi and are neither going to go there anyday. Indeed some of them were afraid of going there to campaign during their elections.”
Senator Giwa said “the Bakassi people are surprised at the sudden interest in the area. When the IC J judgement was delivered as far back as 2002, nobody was seemingly interested in the affairs of the people or of the area but handed the area to Cameroon. Today that judgment has become a major issue. We are tempted to suspect such sudden interest by the Federal Government.”
She asserted that the people are yet to be resettled six years after the area was ceded to Cameroon.
“For ten years we cried and shouted and we were taken to Ikang which is totally alien to us and for the first time in my political career the person sponsored for councillorship lost the election,” she added.
She said as at now the people of Bakassi have been internally displaced without a home to call their own and “we know that to be internally displaced in your country is worse than being a refugee.”.
According to her, the people unequivocally reject being treated as slaves in their country.
“Knowing that we have a right to be treated with dignity, we registered our rights to vote and indeed voted at Dayspring 1, 2 and Kwa Island in the last political dispensation. It is on record that INEC concluded the ward delineation of Dayspring 1, 2 and Kwa Islands to reflect the traditional 10 wards of Bakassi and the people voted in the local government, House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and Presidential election only to be disenfranchised in the rescheduled governorship election,” she said.
BY EMMA UNA/Calabar